A large variety of safety scissors have been developed for use by children and are available in the art.
Many of the available prior art safety scissors employ a narrow slot through which the material to be cut may be inserted by the user, which serves to limit both the application and the thickness of material which may be effectively cut using these types of scissors. Other types of prior art safety scissors provide various forms of shields which limit the user's access to a pointed surface or prevent contact with one or more of the sharp cutting edges of the cutting device provided for.
Generally, the objective of all of the prior art teachings related to child-proof and other types of safety scissors have been, as it is with the present invention, to prevent an immature or unsophisticated user from inserting a finger or other body part into said scissors and doing personal injury to themself or others.
Examples of prior art safety scissors include the following:
U.S. Pat. No. 681,972, which issued to Postlethwait on Sep. 3, 1901, teaches a scissors which have been provided with supplemental jaws that will retain the material to be cut to prevent said material from tearing; PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 1,279,389, which issued to Malsin on Sep. 17, 1918, relates to a safety scissors which has been fitted with a safety guard consisting of a plate which is provided with a longitudinal central recess; PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 1,284,419, which issued to Moody on Nov. 12, 1918, teaches a safety scissors which has been provided with an auxiliary safety device to protect a person from injury when carrying the scissors about in the pocket and for protecting the points of the scissors from damage; PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 1,876,218, which issued to Gee on Sep. 6, 1932, is directed to a scissors useful to operators of full fashioned hosiery machines so as to allow the operator to utilize one hand instead of two to perform the necessary cutting functions required to carry out the knitting operation; PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 1,997,242, which issued to Ullman, Jr. on Apr. 9, 1935, relates to a cutting device having a diagonally arranged opening for receiving the object to be cut and a sliding knife for cutting part of the object; PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 2,272,753, which issued to Steinhardt on Feb. 10, 1942, teaches a safety scissors which is provided with a narrow slot of a fixed width in place of the usual V-opening between the cutting edges of the scissor blades, said slot being sufficiently wide to permit the cutting operation on the material inserted therein but narrow enough to prevent engagement of the users finger with the cutting edges of the scissor blades; PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 2,557,553, which issued to Metzger on Jun. 19, 1951, relates to play scissors especially designed to be used by children which is provided with a guard surrounding one of the scissor blades preventing all but thin sheets of paper from being inserted between the guard and the unprotected scissor blade so as to prevent a child from inserting a finger or the like into the operative portion of the said scissors; PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 2,591,740, which issued to Stilwell et al. on Apr. 8, 1952, concerns a child's safety scissors which is provided with guard plates wherein, in one embodiment, the cutting blade is interposed between two plates which are provided with parallel slots allowing the cutting blade to contact a piece of paper which is inserted therein, without exposing a child to the action of the blade; PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 4,235,016, which issued to Kobelt on Nov. 25, 1980, teaches safety scissors which are provided with a guard member secured at one end adjacent to the pivot point of the scissor blades, the said guard member extending away from the cutting edge at an acute angle and downward to form a narrow slot at the inside edge of the cutting blade thereby forming an open space between the guard member and the cutting edge; PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 4,423,729, which issued to Gray on Jan. 3, 1984, relates to a suture installation instrument wherein the blades of a pair of suture scissors are pivotally mounted within a tapered hood, the said hood being provided with a slot in parallel alignment with the shearing line of the blades of the scissors; PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 4,805,305, which issued to Davis on Feb. 21, 1989, teaches a replaceable razor blade scissor useful in cutting hair which incorporates the feature of providing a cutting surface which consists of a straight edged razor blade which can be replaced when dull; PA1 U.K. Patent Specification 529,266, which issued to Seller, III et al. on Nov. 18, 1940, relates to a scissor in which the blade contacting the work is provided with a guard plate or sheath extending along and projecting beyond the cutting edge of the blade; and PA1 U.K. Patent Application No. 2,163,988, which issued to Chan on Sep. 6, 1984, relates to a scissor having a blade which is moveable within a protective casing and provides a defined slot for receiving the material to be cut thus preventing a child's finger from being inserted between the blades.
The present invention differs from any of the known prior art devices in that it teaches a child-proof safety scissor which can be used in the same fashion as a conventional scissor and, therefore, has the broadest possible utility for cutting varying thicknesses of a broad range of materials, including paper fabric and elongated fibrous materials, such as, for example, human or synthetic hair.